Ink jet printers generally transfer ink to a printing surface by actuation of some sort of transducer that causes a jet or nozzle to dispense ink, often a drop at a time. The transducer receives some sort of electrical signal and then provides a mechanical impetus to cause ink to exit the jet. For example, in piezoelectric ink jets, a piezoelectric element receives an electric signal and moves, usually pressing against a membrane or other structure to push the ink through the jet. In order to control the printing process, the ink must reach the jets from ink reservoirs.
Transmission of the ink from the reservoir to the jets normally involves pushing, often with air pressure, the ink through some sort of umbilical, pipe or tube into manifold pathways that route the ink to the jets. The ink jet print heads, the structure that actually causes the ink to be printed, includes the manifolds, the jet array and the control circuitry. The jet array and the control circuitry, such as the actuators, may be referred to as the jet stack. The ink fed to the jet stack may travel through several different manifolds to allow better control of the ink flow and to manage air flow from the pressurization of the ink.
In current implementations of ink jet print heads, the print heads generally consist of several steel plates structured in a way to form internal manifolds, the steel plates being brazed or adhered together. These internal manifolds provide an ink supply for multiple nearby jets. The extra jet stack plates needed to form the internal manifolds add cost. The internal manifolds may also result in acoustic resonance that may cause the jets to drop out of operation in certain printing conditions. Further, the plates may also provide increased opportunities for air bubble traps that decrease reliability.